Westfall Township canoe liveries sue to stop fun tax

Westfall is being sued again, this time by two canoe liveries challenging the township's new fun tax.

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By BETH BRELJE

poconorecord.com

By BETH BRELJE

Posted Feb. 21, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By BETH BRELJE

Posted Feb. 21, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Westfall is being sued again, this time by two canoe liveries challenging the township's new fun tax.

Kittatinny Canoes and Indian Head Canoes have asked the Pike County Court of Common Pleas for a preliminary injunction preventing the township from enforcing the tax before it is heard in court.

They also are asking for an early March court hearing, before the outfitters open in April. A decision on the injunction has not yet been made.

Westfall supervisors passed a 1 percent tax in December on anything considered entertainment where admission is charged. The tax will be imposed on canoe liveries, admissions at high school sporting events and plays, golf driving ranges, music in parks, carnival rides, gun and home shows at the Best Western Hunt's Landing and rodeos at Malibu Dude Ranch.

The liveries argue in court papers that the township adopted the tax under the color of state law and that taxing the liveries is in violation two federal laws because the businesses operate in three states.

Paddlers who meet in Westfall are either bused to a New York access site up river and then paddle to Westfall, or they paddle down river to the Delaware Water Gap, exiting boats on the New Jersey side.

The commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, which authorizes Congress to regulate commerce among states, says a state may not impose a tax on interstate commerce, court papers say.

The suit also claims the fun tax violates a federal law that says, "No taxes, tolls, operating charges, fees or any other impositions whatever shall be levied upon or collected from any vessel or other watercraft, or from its passengers or crew by any non-federal interest if the vessel or watercraft is operating any navigable waters subject to the authority of the United States."

The Delaware River is managed by the National Park Service in two sections, the Upper Delaware Scenic River and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

The liveries are represented by local attorney John Schneider of Milford and by Philadelphia Attorney Cletus Lyman, who recently won a $703,000 settlement from Westfall for his client, former police officer Robert Dombrosky.

The township does not need more legal fees from lawsuits. Taxpayers will be paying off the Dombrosky settlement and the $6 million settlement from a discrimination case brought by developers David H. and Barbara D. Katz for years to come.